The Cultural And Religious Traditions Of The European...
In an eastern Mediterranean province, a group of pious individuals pray before the
elaborate portrait of a local saint and hero, hoping the image will bestow upon them
some semblance of safety and secure for them a good harvest and protection from the
aggressive invaders who continue to threaten their lands to the south. The individuals
know little about the movement stirring in the large city to the north, which seeks to
remove the holy image to which they so ardently pray. From the west, rumors of a
new Creed have made their way to the town, but the grand political and historical
implications of this document are unknown the laity, who, illiterate, have never read
the creed to which their church adheres.
In such an environment, the ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Though such controversies alone have many theological and religious implications,
they can only be truly understood in the political and historical context in which they
arose.
Religious icons, or images, may include paintings, murals, portraits, or mosaics,
which, in the seventh through ninth centuries, commonly depicted Christ, the
likeness of a saint, or a particular scene from scripture. The dispute over the use of
icons and religious imagery in the Church, and the nature of this use amongst the
laity, began in the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, in the late seventh
century, with the movement against icons, or the iconoclasm movement, reaching its
height in the mid ninth century. The use of Icons in Christian practice began in the
Coptic Church in Egypt, and spread throughout the Byzantium Empire, developing
into a vital form of religious education and communication for the laity throughout
the East. Those who opposed religious iconography, did so on the basis of
scripture, as the practice of icon use was clearly condemned in Old Testament text.
As the use of every religious icon could not be explicitly regulated, it was difficult
for religious and imperial authorities to determine how such icons were used by the
public. Thus, as it was unknown whether the laity prayed before or to the icons in
their community, all religious icons were removed to prevent the risk of unorthodoxy
and the potential practice of idolatry (Brubaker et al., 2011).
The